title: LT — Industry Structure & Commercial Dynamics (W6) | World Payments Monitor canonical: https://payments.gi/jurisdictions/lithuania/w6/ ### W6 Industry Structure & Commercial Probable re-verified 2026-10-18 · changed 2026-10-18 Lithuania is the EU's largest EMI/PI hub by licence count (second only to the UK in Europe), hosting 280+ fintech companies serving ~30 million clients across Europe, the majority being Revolut users. The market has matured from a 2016-2021 licensing boom (12 to 87 EMIs) into consolidation, with the number of active EMIs declining to ~76 in 2024 and growth now driven by scaling incumbents rather than new entrants. Paysera is the largest domestic EMI; major foreign players include Revolut, SumUp, Payhawk and Airwallex. Standing sub-brief · as of 27 June 2026 266 words · last cycle 2026-10-18 #### Industry Structure & Commercial Lithuania is the EU's largest EMI/PI hub by licence count, second only to the UK in Europe, hosting roughly 282 fintech companies serving around 30 million clients across Europe — approximately 28 million of them via Revolut. In 2024 Lithuanian EMIs and PIs processed EUR 152 billion, a 30% year-on-year increase. The structural story, however, is one of maturation rather than continued expansion: active EMIs declined from a 2021 peak of 87 to roughly 76 in 2024, reflecting one new EMI against six closures. Growth is now driven by scaling incumbents rather than by new entrants, with the competitive structure shaped by firms such as Paysera as the largest domestic EMI, Revolut as the largest user base, and foreign and marketplace licensees including Payhawk and Vinted. This structural module is deliberately distinct from the discrete commercial events tracked in W13: the consolidation trend and the licence-count dynamics belong here, while specific announced deals and product launches are routed to W13. The shift from a 2016-2021 licensing boom into a consolidation phase, with growth concentrated in scaling incumbents and AML/CFT failings remaining the dominant driver of licence revocations, is the central judgment for this module. #### Outlook The W6 trajectory is stable, characterised as a market stabilising after consolidation. The principal analytical question going forward is whether the incumbent-driven growth model persists or whether MiCA-entry licensing reopens a wave of new entrants of a different character. The throughput and consolidation counts rest on single Tier-3 sources and are flagged as needing primary anchoring against the Bank of Lithuania's Payments Market Review and EBA/ECB statistics. Periodic update · new data 2026-10-18 #### Industry Structure & Commercial Dynamics Lietuvos bankas's reduction of CENTROlink operating fees by half, effective 1 May 2025, with a reduced rate of EUR 0.003 per payment for participants processing more than one million payments per month, continues to shape the commercial economics of payment processing through Lithuania. CENTROlink is Lietuvos bankas's payment-infrastructure platform providing direct access to euro payment systems for both bank and non-bank participants, and a fee reduction of this scale materially lowers the cost of high-volume payment processing for electronic money institutions and payment institutions that have chosen Lithuania as their operating base. This fee structure is a structural commercial-dynamics development rather than a single-event one: it continues to reinforce Lithuania's positioning as a cost-competitive jurisdiction for payment institutions seeking direct infrastructure access rather than relying on correspondent or sponsor-bank arrangements elsewhere in the eurozone. Combined with the continued growth of Lithuania's licensed payment and crypto-asset-service-provider base evidenced elsewhere this cycle, the CENTROlink economics are one structural factor supporting the jurisdiction's continued attractiveness to high-volume payment processors. The CENTROlink fee structure, now well embedded since its May 2025 effective date, is not expected to change materially in the near term absent a new Lietuvos bankas announcement. Its continued effect will be visible primarily through sustained or growing participation by EMIs and PIs using CENTROlink for direct infrastructure access rather than indirect correspondent routes. **2 earlier distinct update(s)** Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Industry Structure & Commercial Dynamics Lithuania's standard corporate income tax rate rose to 17% from 1 January 2026, up from 16%, a general fiscal change applying uniformly to payment institutions and electronic money institutions domiciled in the jurisdiction as to any other Lithuanian company. This marginally raises the domestic cost baseline for firms licensed in Lithuania, though it is not a sector-specific measure and does not itself alter Lithuania's competitive position relative to other EU payments hubs applying their own respective national tax rates. Separately, Lithuania's CENTROlink payment system is reported to have processed 379.7 million payments in 2025, up 28.9% year over year, with instant payments comprising 68% of all Lithuanian payment volume in 2025. This growth figure, if accurate, would indicate continued strong uptake of instant-payments infrastructure within the jurisdiction's payment-processing volume, consistent with Lithuania's broader positioning as a high-volume EMI/PI licensing hub. This figure currently rests on a single lower-tier source this cycle and has not been corroborated against a Bank of Lithuania primary publication. Corroboration of the CENTROlink 2025 volume and growth figures against a Bank of Lithuania primary publication would strengthen confidence in the instant-payments growth narrative. The corporate-tax increase is not expected to materially alter Lithuania's competitive positioning as a payments-licensing hub on its own. Periodic update · new data 2026-09-11 #### Industry Structure & Commercial Dynamics Lithuania's non-bank payment sector comprises 71 electronic-money institutions and 45 payment institutions currently operating in the jurisdiction, a standing market-structure fact confirming Lithuania's position as a leading EU fintech-licensing hub. This scale of licensee concentration provides essential context for reading the governance and safeguarding tightening introduced under Bank of Lithuania Resolution No. 247 and the proposed supervisory-contribution increase from the Ministry of Finance: a jurisdiction hosting this many non-bank licensees carries correspondingly high stakes in calibrating new governance and funding requirements without eroding its competitive position as a licensing destination. The TransferGo EMI licence expansion, enabling EU-wide payment-card issuance alongside the firm's existing money-transfer and account services, is a concrete illustration of continued product-level growth within this licensee population even as the regulatory floor is being raised. The expansion did not disclose transaction or investment figures, but it demonstrates that established non-bank payment institutions continue to view Lithuania's EMI framework as a viable platform for expanding into new product categories such as card issuance, rather than a jurisdiction from which to retreat in the face of tightening governance requirements. Whether Lithuania's EMI and PI licensee counts continue to grow, hold steady, or begin to contract as the new governance, safeguarding and potential fee-increase requirements take full effect will be the key structural indicator to watch in coming cycles, as it will reveal whether the jurisdiction's competitive positioning as a fintech-licensing hub is being maintained or eroded by the current tightening trajectory. **Sources and findings (4 unique sources · R-3/R-4)** 1. [W6-E1] T3 Derived: Probable [in_force https://thepaypers.com/fintech/interviews/lithuanias-fintech-evolution-from-licencing-boom-to-strategic-scaleup](https://thepaypers.com/fintech/interviews/lithuanias-fintech-evolution-from-licencing-boom-to-strategic-scaleup) re-verified 2026-06-27 In 2024 Lithuanian EMIs and PIs processed payments worth EUR 152 billion, a 30% year-on-year increase; there are around 282 fintech companies serving 30 million clients across Europe (roughly 28 million via Revolut), with specialised digital-first banks seeing 40% annual market-share growth and growth coming from scaling incumbents rather than new entrants. 2. [W6-E2] T3 Derived: Probable [in_force https://thebanks.eu/articles/e-money-institutions-in-the-fintech-ecosystem-of-Lithuania](https://thebanks.eu/articles/e-money-institutions-in-the-fintech-ecosystem-of-Lithuania) re-verified 2026-06-27 Lithuania's licensed EMIs grew from 12 in 2016 to 87 by 2021 but the trend has since reversed to about 76 active EMIs in 2024; in 2024 the sector saw a net decrease with only one new EMI established and six closures, reflecting increased regulatory scrutiny and market consolidation. 3. [W6-E3] T3 Derived: Probable [in_force https://www.paysera.com/v2/en-GB/blog/fintech-story](https://www.paysera.com/v2/en-GB/blog/fintech-story) re-verified 2026-06-27 Paysera is the largest EMI in Lithuania per Bank of Lithuania data and was the first Lithuanian EMI licensed by the Bank of Lithuania. 4. [W6-E4] T3 Derived: Probable [in_force https://thepaypers.com/fintech/interviews/inside-lithuanias-fintech-rise-how-to-build-an-ecosystem](https://thepaypers.com/fintech/interviews/inside-lithuanias-fintech-rise-how-to-build-an-ecosystem) re-verified 2026-06-27 Marketplace and software firms such as Vinted and Bulgarian unicorn Payhawk have obtained Lithuanian EMI licences to bring payments in-house, highlighting Lithuania's comparative regulatory attractiveness; Revolut used Lithuania as a testing ground before securing a full banking licence.